Recent Findings in Active Structural Control

Over the past decade, tremendous advancements have been made in the development of structural control paradigms and in the necessary supporting technologies. The fundamental paradigm that has driven these advancements is the desire to create 'biologically inspired', controllable structures. In search of these structures with adaptive and lifelike features, the modern-day alchemists have developed several approaches, based on natural systems, to incorporate adaptability into structures. This presentation will describe four specific examples of adaptive behavior and the applications which might benefit from such lifelike functions.